So how do you feel about it?

Glad to hear it Alima

Does this mean we'll get a 'swoon' emoticon?

I have never read romantic fiction written by anybody and doubt if I will ever be reduced to reading M&B and Barbara Cartland. Indinana I have a recliner and a cat, do they count?

I reckon you'll do Charleygirl. Go knit yourself a shawl just to complete the picture

Does this mean we'll get a 'swoon' emoticon?

I think it'd be more fun to have a 'manhood' emoticon

I once read a M&B as my son, then aged about 9, gave me a book for my birthday, purchased with his pocket money. I haven't been back though .

Apparently MNet is tied in with Lidl. Can't we get a tie in with Aldi please GNet. After all very few if any of us read M&B but we all use supermarkets. Isn't it sexist anyway, what about the chaps who use GNet?

Since I knew two intelligent woman, better qualified than I am, who chain read M&B for relaxation, I tried a handful. They just didn't satisfy, in the same way that carob doesn't satisfy me when I want chocolate.
DLS - I am a fan of Jilly Cooper, and of MC Beaton's Regency series.

This sounds a bit like the link-up they did reviving the defunct Oldie forum a couple of years ago (I think money must have changed hands on that occasion too) . No-one told us about that either, the first we knew was when several new threads "planted" by Oldie journalists appeared. Everyone thought it was a concerted troll invasion, and hackles rose.

The poor Oldie readers who innocently joined in were not received very graciously. All down to GNHQ not having the good manners to prepare the regulars for the addition of another forum section, full of newbies. I thought "lessons were learnt" from that.

At least, let's not be nasty to the M&B posters - they will be ordinary people like the rest of us. They may have to learn to accept a few honest replies without being too sensitive, but I am sure we will all get along fine.

PS to Jane10 - I am currently signed on for a Futurelearn course which has a murder at the heart of it. Each week we get new evidence, revealing more forensic stuff about the case, and at week six we will have to finger a suspect. so far we have had fingermarks, blood spatter patterns, and bloodstains - real bloodstains, not strawberry juice. Verrrry interesting. (Next conference we will all be taking our fingerprints)

I hope this won't affect the choice of reading for the GN book club! I shan't be applying for a copy if it is M&B.

I've never read one, and hopefully will never feel the need to!

Quite happy with my current reading habits, crime, the odd sort of strange/fantasy stuff (Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson) Can't bear "formulaic" books, avoid Wilbur Smith because he is guilty of this!

I read a few with a view to writing one. A friend and I wrote it together. It was rejected though they liked the dialogues which were my main contribution. However, I've never tried it again and my friend moved away which made collaboration difficult

I had a look at the M&B online community website, and from the photos of members most of them are a lot younger than we are!

In our Library romance and westerns are probably the most frequently borrowed books

mills and boon books have come a long way since the early days...it seems theres a stigma attached that they cant get rid of...

www.theguardian.com/books/2009/sep/11/mills-boon-books-romance-love

How patronising! ! Never read a mills and boon book in my life, and hopefully never feel the need to!

We all tried reading a few when I was in the NWR. I reached the point of feeling so annoyed by the tales of these very dependent women I came near to chucking the books across the room.

Would Mills and Boon like our thread on the difficulties caused by Atrophic Vaginitis. It rather interferes with romantic novels.

About twenty years ago I knew a woman who wrote books forMills and Boon. She said she received a sort of plan of the story with a few details about the setting and the characters and what happened and all she needed to do was to sort of fill in the gaps!!!

Never read one, never will. Find it rather patronising GNHQ

Well I have read one. Just to see what it was like. Been there, done that, don't need or want to do it again.

M&B issued a tape of advice for prospective authors which had my friend and me rolling on the floor. The title? 'Then he Kissed me'. I do wish I hadn't got rid of it.

Why didn't you tell us about before telling everyone else in publishing world? As Elegran says you'd think lessons would have been learned from the 'Oldie' tie up. We, the Grans, are a live commodity, your consumers, some evaluation of opinions might have been sensible before forming this connection. I think you have misjudged Grans and am surprised and very disappointed.

Thanks GNHQ. That all makes sense to me. I don't really see what all the fuss is about ... No one's saying all gransnetters are M&B readers in the same way I imagine not all M&B readers are grans...? Where's the harm? And I don't really see how they can canvas our opinion on every business arrangement, nor would I care.

demographically there's a considerable crossover with the profile of Gransnet users.

Seriously? It's not looking like it from the responses on this thread Lucy! M&B fiction is pretty mindless uninspiring stuff from the admittedly small amount I have seen. My impression of the posters on GN doesn't tally with this at all! I'm not sure it is the impression GN should be promoting. You maybe need to change your PR company. ?